Visayas grid enters 7th straight week of Yellow Alerts

CEBU CITY — The Visayas power grid remains under strain as the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) placed the region under Yellow Alert on Monday, June 22, marking the seventh consecutive week that the grid has operated under thin power reserves.

NGCP declared a Yellow Alert from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. on June 22 after available capacity fell to 2,593 megawatts (MW), leaving a tight buffer above the projected peak demand of 2,427 MW.

A Yellow Alert is issued when the operating margin is insufficient to meet the transmission grid’s contingency requirements.

READ MORE: Visayas grid still under yellow alert

It also means that the system has limited reserves to absorb unexpected power plant outages or sudden spikes in electricity demand.

The latest alert comes as persistent generation deficiencies continue to hound the Visayas grid.

READ MORE: EXPLAINER: Color-coded grid alert statuses and what they mean

According to NGCP, a total of 25 power plants are either offline or operating below their normal capacities, removing 944 MW from the region’s power supply.

Eight generating units have remained on forced outage since June, while another eight have been unavailable since May.

READ MORE: CERA: Declare energy emergency in Cebu due to low power supply

One plant has been offline since March, while three others have been out of service since 2025. Two plants have remained unavailable since 2024, another two since 2023, and one unit has been on outage since 2021.

In addition, 15 power plants are operating on reduced capacities, further reducing the amount of electricity available to the grid.

NGCP attributed Monday’s Yellow Alert to the continued unavailability of several large coal-fired generating units, particularly Units 1 and 2 of Therma Visayas Inc. (TVI) and PEDC Unit 3, combined with expectations of high electricity demand during the evening peak period.

While a Yellow Alert does not automatically result in rotating brownouts, it raises the likelihood of emergency measures such as manual load dropping should additional generating units unexpectedly trip offline.

The recurring alerts highlight the increasingly fragile supply situation in the Visayas, where reserve margins have remained thin for weeks despite the absence of widespread power interruptions.

Energy sector observers have warned that prolonged outages among major base load plants leave the grid vulnerable to disruptions, especially during periods of elevated demand brought about by hotter weather and economic activity.

The fragile power situation in the region has also prompted several advocacy groups to urge the government to place Cebu under an ‘energy emergency.’

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